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👉🏻jonathan_foster's avatar

I really like the thought you are attempting to express. And I kinda like that you had the courage to express it without having it figured out yet. That says something...

And maybe we won't ever have it figured out.

In the Hebrew story there's a wonderful phrase that pops up no later than the 2nd verse of Genesis... it's tohu wa bohu. It's a strange, somewhat enigmatic rhyming phrase connoting chaos and potential. Unfortuantley unimaginiative western Christianity took the story to mean that the divine had to step in and destroy, overpower, do away with the chaos in order to get anything done. Turns out, chaos (e.g., randomness, indeterminacy, etc) is at the heart of everything. And my take, though of course I could be wrong, is that the divine is in the middle of the chaos. So, yes, keep "messing up" the "construction of order from chaos." It's already messed up! And maybe there's something or someone in the middle of all of that.

Or, ha, maybe it's meaningless.

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Morgan Richards's avatar

My grandmother, a widower, lived in her home until her mid-90s. I lived nearby and helped her with many interactions with the outside world — paying bills, sending emails, negotiating with unintelligible telco support personnel or health care admin. These things bewildered and flustered her, sometimes bringing her to tears.

But there were some things she wouldn’t give up, and even though she struggled with them physically, they brought her peace and contentment. The upkeep of the flower garden, the preparation of meals and washing of dishes, the morning hobble down the garden path to the letterbox — these gave her a sense of durability and a rootedness, even as her body and mind were starting to let go.

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